


Security

by PepperCat



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Chicken Soup, Confusion, Fluff, Gen, No Plot/Plotless, Sickfic, Whining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-14
Updated: 2019-04-14
Packaged: 2020-01-13 06:07:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,937
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18463037
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PepperCat/pseuds/PepperCat
Summary: Axel's feeling under the weather.





	Security

**Author's Note:**

> *blows dust off account*

Axel was fine. Managing to shower and putting on clothes, technically, and getting out to the kitchen, that was pretty basic criteria for fine, and yeah everything hurt but not in the worse way ever, the trouble was just--

He'd taken one of the pills Boo left, and the stupid thing was stuck halfway down his throat.

He was standing in front of the open fridge with one hand on his throat because it was getting that ugly raw feel of a pill melting inside it, and he was having one of those really stupid minutes where you can't remember what the hell you're _going_ for...

He closed the fridge door until he remembered what he was trying to do. Stood there staring at it. It was hot and stuffy in the kitchen, not hot like it had been in the shower but everything pressing in on his head and he stepped back to the doorway and leaned on it, eyes closed.

It was hard to breathe, in his chest and kinda in his brain, and everything felt so slow.

Piper was saying his name, and after a minute he opened his eyes. Piper was always talking, but usually it made a lot more sense. Talking about going somewhere, and really, Axel was dressed but he wasn't _that_ dressed, he was shivering again.

"Come on," Piper was saying. "Living room, Axel. Come on."

He swallowed and his throat felt awful again, the pill stuck in it, and _t_ _hat's_ what he'd been going to do, right.

He pushed away from the doorway towards the fridge, but then Piper had his arm and there was this weird swinging and he was heading towards the living room--

"No, hey--" Axel swayed on his feet and grabbed the kitchen doorway. "Hey, come on!" It sounded like a hollow flute inside his head, but the point was that Piper couldn't keep him out of the _kitchen_ , he didn't want to eat but the pill was stuck in his throat and he needed a glass and-- you can't keep a guy from _water_ , that's not fair. "C'mon, I need a _drink_."

"I'll bring you a drink," Piper said. "Go sit down, Axel."

Axel slackened his grip on the doorway.

"Go on." Piper's talking all low and quiet and Axel wants to go fall over asleep again but his bed's all the way down the hall. "I'll bring you a drink. What do you want? Water? Gatorade? Juice?"

Axel stared at him for a moment, then pushed away from the doorway and staggered towards the living room couch.

He heard Piper say something behind him, didn't make out the details, just sat down on the couch and figured he'd never move again. That'd be okay. He was shivering and sweating at once; he wanted to get up for his coat, but that was too much work. His bones hurt.

"Here," and he opened his eyes. Piper was holding a bottle of something spray-paint orange. Axel took it and swallowed and that raw bitterness started to wash out of his throat.

"This sucks," he said. It hurt, and he couldn't fucking _think_ , but that was just oversharing, so he was going to settle for complaining.

"Uh-huh," Piper said, or something like that, and put a box of Kleenex next to him on the couch, and the little garbage can they used for like advertising flyers and crap by his feet. "Have you eaten today?"

"Get me my coat?"

Piper was looking at him. Stupid blank expression, but he wasn't doing that oh-so-correct poise thing.

Maybe a normal expression and Axel just couldn't read it. Everything felt so _hard_ right now.

"Your coat?" Piper said.

"I'm freezing." He picked up one of the tissues and coughed into it and goddammit that was his throat sore all over again, _raw_ , and his head pulsing hot while someone squeezed his chest from the inside. Piper came back and draped a blanket across Axel's lap. It wasn't his coat, but Axel pulled it up around himself and over one shoulder and kept drinking the orange stuff.

"That better?"

"'m cold."

"I suspect that's related to the fact that the only thing you're wearing is my bathrobe."

"Was in the bathroom."

"Give it three minutes and if you're still cold I'll turn up the heat."

"I'm cold _now_."

"I'm well aware." Piper sounded tired. Axel stared at him for a minute, then waved the hand with the bottle of Gatorade at him.

"Why aren't you in plastic?"

"What?"

"Plastic. All over." Piper blinked at him. "You don't wanna catch this."

"Shawna said aspiration pneumonia is distinctly unlikely to be infectious."

Axel made a sound like _ugh_ and swallowed more of the drink and set it down on the table. It hurt to lean over for that, but dropping it would be cold and wet and sticky, and he was shivering again at just the thought. "Fuck Mardon."

"Better than letting you fall."

"It was a _tornado_."

"A light breeze probably wouldn't have cut it," Piper said dryly. "Have you eaten today?"

Axel shrugged and pulled the blanket up over his other shoulder. He mostly just remembered getting up, and the shower.

"Alright," Piper said, but softly, to himself. "Axel," a little louder and clearer, until Axel blinked up at him. "You need to eat something. Do you care what?"

"Uh-uh. Can you turn on the TV?"

Piper picked up the remote and the TV screen lit up, menu scrolling past.

"Hey, I didn't pick--"

" _Spider Baby_?" Piper said. "You like that one. Just until I get back with something to eat?"

"You could've _asked,_ " Axel said soupily. "Yeah. Yeah, okay." He leaned his head back; it was easier than holding it up, but he couldn't see the TV. Could hear it, though, and that was nice. Lon Chaney's cackle and then _screams and moans and bats and bones..._

"You want your phone?"

"Yeah."

He heard Piper moving around, then heard the clunk of his phone on the table. Heard the door shut gently. The ceiling was boring, and he sat forward and coughed some muck into the tissues and then pulled his feet up and lay down on the couch. Breathing tasted awful, even through his nose, but it was a little clearer.

Fuck Mardon, anyway.

He woke up to Piper draping another blanket across him, grumbled and swiped at the guy's hands but missed. "I thought you were getting food."

"Just need a few minutes in the kitchen."

"You can't cook." Okay, scrambled eggs and toast and spaghetti and stir-fry and stuff but not, like... _really_.

Piper straightened up, sighing. "I got it from the Din. Marisse said it'd be better if I heated it up on the stove and added garlic. It won't be long."

"Right." Axel tried to get up on one elbow so he could see the kitchen doorway and it wasn't working. The blankets were too damn heavy, and his head felt like it was full of warm glue and ground glass. "I hate this."

"I know," Piper said from the kitchen.

"I'mma go back to the shower," he decided. "Stay until Monday." Plan. Yes.

"No. Our heater would run out."

"We can get Mick."

"Our heater would _melt_."

"Oh yeah." Axel blinked at the TV screen. Black and white and silvery. He was probably watching _Spider Baby_ again. He stared at the flickering figures, waiting for them to make sense, and after a while Piper came in and set a mug of something on the table. Axel could even smell it a little.

"Sit up so you can drink this," Piper was saying patiently, and after a minute Axel struggled upright. The blankets were easier when Piper was helping.

"Hey," he said muzzily. "You're gonna catch this--"

"We talked about that," Piper said as Axel picked up the mug. "Careful, it's hot."

"What is it?"

"Chicken soup."

"Smells weird." Mostly that he can smell anything at all is the weird part. It doesn't smell bad, but it's _weird_ , what the hell is Piper doing thinking he can cook?

"That's probably the garlic."

"I don't _like_ chicken."

Piper took a deep breath and smiled. Couldn't even do _that_ right, and Axel laughs a little but his throat hurts all over again. "First, I have seen the speed at which you go through chicken wings. Second, when I asked what you wanted to eat you said that you didn't care--"

"--oh blah _blah blah_ \--"

"--and third, if you do not voluntarily eat _something_ , I am going to duct tape you to the couch, pour this down your throat, and not worry about you retaliating until you are no longer trying to breathe through a petri dish, so _drink_ _your_ _soup_ _._ "

He might be glaring or he might just have that blank look on his face, but he's probably mad. It wouldn't matter except he's standing up and Axel isn't, but Axel sniffs anyway. Except it comes out as more of a snork. "Yeah right."

"Try me."

He didn't _sound_ mad.

But they had a lot of duct tape in the house.

This was definitely too much goddamn work. Axel huffed and drank some of the soup. Which was okay. Glared at the movie a little. Had a little more soup.

Probably would have been better if Marisse had finished cooking it instead of Piper. "And people think _you're_ the nice one."

"I can't imagine where anyone would get that idea," Piper says. "Do you want anything?"

Axel shook his head, tiny bit. It was kind of helping. Steam clearing his head, or Boo's pill kicking in, or something. He pulled his feet up onto the couch and finished the soup.

"Axel. Did you want anything?"

"Iunno." He's thinking he could go back to bed. But the blankets here are warm, and his sheets are gonna be cold by now. "There any more?"

"Soup? Yes, I can get--"

Axel meant for later, and he poked Piper's leg with his foot to interrupt. "Siddown. Watch the movie."

"I've seen the movie."

Axel poked him again. "Watch the _movie_ , Pipes." Or something. Sleeping alone was okay. Being awake and alone was _boring_. "C'mon, sit down--" poke poke poke-- "movie movie _movie_ \--"

Piper sighed and sat down. Picked up a book from next to his end of the couch and opened it, but he wants to watch the movie while he's reading a book, okay. Axel didn't really care if he _appreciated_ it. Trying to get Piper to get it was probably a waste of time.

"You're sure you don't want anything? I can get the rest of the soup."

"Later." Axel coughed into one of the tissues again. His throat felt thick, but not really raw, not like before. "You're treating me like one of your rats."

"I assure you," Piper said dryly, "you're a _lot_ more trouble than one of my rats."

"Yeah?" That was nice to hear. Probably meant he'd keep getting food and stuff. Axel stretched his feet out enough that they ended up in Piper's lap, heard Piper sigh and then felt the end of the blankets getting tugged over his feet. That was okay, felt less cold. He was tired but not sleepy. "That means you get more soup when I want it, right?"

"Mm-hmh."

"And more blankets."

"Sure."

"And kleenex." What else was there? "And drinks. And pills. And--"

"Watch the movie, Axel."

Piper really didn't sound mad at all.

There probably wasn't gonna be duct tape.

Axel shrugged deeper into the blankets, and watched the silvery images move across the screen.

**Author's Note:**

> This one's been in a WIP state for a while. I am relieved this is no longer the case.
> 
>  _Spider Baby_ makes another appearance as Axel's comfort watch. The (cute, animated, spooky) opening credits can be seen [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7RT9OGzXL4).


End file.
